Musar sur Les Nombres 14:49

[Likewise] one who put out a bad name (on someone else), as it is stated (Numbers 14:37), “And those who spread such calumnies about the land died of plague in front of the Lord.” And our Rabbis, may their memory be blessed, said (Arakhin 15a) [that] if the punishment for one who puts out a bad name on the land is death, all the more so for one who puts out a bad name on a fellow Israelite - who is obligated in Torah and the commandments. And it is stated (Deuteronomy 22:19), “And they shall fine him a hundred [shekels of] silver and give it to the girl’s father; for the man has put out a bad name, etc.” Behold, the verse did not mention his sin about having tried to take the life of the woman, and causing her to be killed in court with false witnesses that he brought about her [fabricated] harlotry; yet it mentioned the iniquity of putting out a bad name! For it is a greater iniquity than one seeking to squelch a life, as the pain of the shame is more bitter than death. And so did our Rabbis, may their memory be blessed, say that he is liable lashes and [a fine] for putting out a bad name, not for having sought to kill her. And our Rabbis, may their memory be blessed, said (Yerushalmi Bava Kamma 8:7) that one who puts out a bad name with words about a blemish in the family is never able to atone. For it is not enough for him to get pardoned by those still alive, as he caused the shame and disgrace of their forebears that gave him birth. And we will still add more to its explanation [when we explain] the severity of the four death penalties [of the court].

And the fifth is that evil speech brings one involved with it to put his mouth to speaking wrongly about God - and as it is stated (Psalms 73:9), “They set their mouths against Heaven, and their tongues range over the earth.” And there is none among all of the sins the punishment for which reaches the punishment for flinging [accusations at God]. And our Rabbis said (Arakhin 15a), “Our ancestors tried the Holy One, Blessed be He with ten trials, but their sentence was sealed only due to the evil speech.” For it is stated (Numbers 14:28), “I will do to you just as you have urged Me, etc.”; and it is stated (Deuteronomy 1:34), “When the Lord heard your loud complaint, He was angry; and He vowed”; and it is stated (Malachi 2:17), “You have wearied the Lord with your talk.” And King David, peace be upon him, said (Psalms 50:16-20), “And to the wicked, God said, ‘Who are you to recite My laws, and mouth the terms of My covenant. [...] When you see a thief, you fall in with him, etc. You devote your mouth to evil, and yoke your tongue to deceit. You are busy maligning your brother.’“ Behold you have learned from this that Torah [study] does not protect those involved with evil speech or one accustomed to steal or to engage in forbidden sexual relations; and that they are not fit to be involved with Torah. And our Rabbis, may their memory be blessed, said (Sotah 21a) [that] because Doeg spoke evil speech, his wisdom did not stand him in. And that which our Rabbis, may their memory be blessed, said - “Sin extinguishes a commandment, but sin does not extinguish Torah, as it is stated (Proverbs 6:23), ‘For the commandment is a lamp, and the Torah is a light’” - they said about someone who sins by chance, and not about one who removes the yoke of the warning of a sin from upon him.

ועתה יגדל נא כח אדנ"י . Both the Pesikta and the Yalkut mention on the verse צור ילדך תשי, "you neglected, or "weakened" the Rock that begot you" (Deut. 32,18), that as long as Israel perform G–d's will, they add to His Power and strength, since Moses has said here: "Now let the Power of G–d become great," (14,17). On the other hand, any time they act contrary to G–d's will, anger Him, they are diminishing His Power, as is evident from that verse in Deuteronomy. This teaches us the tremendous impact human actions have.

And it is stated in Sifrei, and also in Arachin 15a that our forefathers tried the L-rd ten times, and their decree was sealed only for the sin of lashon hara alone, as it is written (Bamidbar 14:22): "And they tried Me this ten times, and they did not heed My voice," and (Malachi 2:17): "You have wearied the L-rd with your words."

We also find that the spies, because of the sin of lashon hara, died an unnatural death, as it is written (Sotah 35a) (Bamidbar 14:37): "And they died, the men who had uttered an evil report of the land, etc." R. Shimon b. Lakish said: "They died an unnatural death." And it is stated there in the Gemara: "We are hereby taught that their tongues descended to their navels, and worms left their mouths onto their tongues, and from their tongues they descended to their navels."

1) The first question asked by all the commentators and foremost by Nachmanides, is what sin the spies actually committed since Moses had told them to examine the country, its people, whether they were strong or weak, numerous or sparse, whether they lived in open or fortified cities, etc. Surely their report had to include answers to all these questions! What was so serious about their saying: "however the people are a tough people?" (13,28). Did Moses send them on their mission in order for them to report untruthfully? We must not think that their sin was only that they described ארץ ישראל as a land that consumes its inhabitants (13,32), since they had quarreled with Caleb and Joshua already prior to that statement, and the Torah reports concerning them in Deut 1,28: "Our brothers have made our hearts melt saying that a great and mighty people live there in great cities fortified to the heavens, etc." Here the Torah reports all the Israelites as being afraid of death by the sword, that their wives and children would be taken prisoner (14,3). If that had been their sin, how was Moses able to describe the inhabitants of the land of Canaan in even more frightening terms, when he said to them in Deut. 9,1: "Hear O Israel, you are about to cross the Jordan to go in and conquer nations greater and more numerous than you; great cities with walls sky-high. A people great and tall, the Anakites of whom you have heard it said: "who can stand up to the children of Anak!" If the sin of the spies had been that they undermined Jewish morale, surely Moses had been guilty of the same thing in an even greater measure when he addressed the younger generation in similar fashion almost forty years later! This is the question raised by Nachmanides.

And now we shall explain in brief the episode of the spies. For, on the surface, it is cause for great wonder: What is it that caused them to sink to such depths and to mislead Israel? More than that — even Sanhedrin erred in this, it being written (Bamidbar 19:1): "And the entire congregation [the Sanhedrin (Rashi)] lifted their voices, etc." And more than this, they said (Ibid. 13:31): "For they are stronger than He," which our sages of blessed memory interpreted as: "He is unable, as it were, to rescue His vessels from there." How could they speak such nonsense?

(Ibid. 30): "And Calev silenced the people towards Moses": As Rashi explains. "He said: 'Is it this alone that Moses has done to us? Did he not split the sea for us and bring down the manna for us, etc.?'" His intent was: If the Holy One Blessed be He had come against us with din, He would not have split the sea for us and He would not have brought down the manna for us. For at the sea, too, they [Israel] were not as they should have been, as it is written (Psalms 106:7): "And they rebelled at the sea, by the Sea of Reeds." And also with the manna, in the beginning there was complaint. And, indeed, in all that period, until now, [as Moses our teacher said afterwards (Bamidbar 14:19): "Forgive, I pray you, the sin of this people in the greatness of Your lovingkindness, and as You have forgiven this people from Egypt until now."] And now, too, "we will go up" to Eretz Yisrael, "and we shall inherit it," as Moses said, when we come there.

And these two claims were countered by Joshua and Calev in short: As to your claim that you made a careful inspection and found its air to be bad, we, too, toured it and inspected closely, and we found that (Ibid. 7) "the land is good, extremely good."

And these two claims were countered by Joshua and Calev in short: As to your claim that you made a careful inspection and found its air to be bad, we, too, toured it and inspected closely, and we found that (Ibid. 7) "the land is good, extremely good."

Moreover, one who is accustomed to speak gossip will sometimes speak words against God, as it is written, "They have set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth" (Ps. 73:9). And there is no greater guilt in all of the sins than the guilt of him who blasphemes God. And our Sages, of blessed memory, said, "With ten trials were our ancestors tried, and in all them their fate was not sealed except for the sin of gossip" (Arakin 15a, Shohar Tov, 39a). As it is said, "As ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you" (Num. 14:28). And it says, "And the Lord heard the voice of your words and was wroth" (Deut. 1:34). And the Torah itself does not protect gossipers. Doeg the Edomite, as soon as he had spoken gossip, his wisdom did not avail him and all of his knowledge of the Torah did not protect him (Sotah 21a, Sanh. 106b).

Joshua and Caleb countered that whatever deity had protected the people of Canaan thus far had already departed from them, i.e. סר צלם מעליהם (14,9), and they had no longer any merits which would act as protection for them. The measure of guilt of the Emorite was by now such that it no longer could be a hindrance to Israel. The expression סר צלם, may be interpreted according to the Zohar on Genesis 18,4: "and recline under the tree." The significance of that tree was that Abraham could tell by it who was truly loyal to G–d, and who cleaved to idol worship. The tree would extend its branches towards those who believed in G–d and would envelop them in its shade. The same branches would withdraw when a person worshiping idols sat under it. Abraham would notice this and begin to engage such a person in a religious dialogue, pointing out the futility of worshiping idols. He would not move from there until he had converted the person in question. Similarly the tree would welcome those who were ritually pure, while rejecting those who were not. There was a well underneath that tree. The waters in the well would rise towards a person in need of purification. As soon as Abraham noticed, he would purify them by ritually pure water. What Moses had commanded the spies about investigating "a tree" (13,20), referred to the tradition mentioned in the Zohar. He wanted to find out how that tree would react when the spies were under it, if it would offer its shade, i.e. a sign that the spies were sincere, if it did not, it would signal the sinful motives of these people.

Another difficulty is the subsequent statement in Bamidbar Rabbah 1,11, on the verse "but do not count the tribe of Levi, etc." (1,49), that Rabbi Pinchas ben Idi said: "when it says at the beginning of the Book, שאו את ראש, it pointedly does not say גדל את ראש, "elevate the head." The expression "שאו" is similar to the judge telling the executioner to behead the convicted prisoner. By the use of this word, G–d hinted that Israel would have to qualify for greatness only through the accumulation of merits. In that case the meaning of שאו, would be similar to Genesis 40, 12, "within three days Pharaoh will lift your head, (ישא) and restore you to your former position." Should Israel fail to merit greatness however, they would all die, as did the chief of the bakers in Genesis 40,19, who was told by Joseph that Pharaoh would ישא ראשך מעליך "will lift your head off you, and hang you on a pole." It had been clear to G–d at that time, that all the people about to be counted would die in the desert. G–d therefore told Moses to count the Levites not with the Israelites, but separately. The Levites had to be counted separately. If the tribe of Levi had been counted together with the other tribes the angel of death would have had authority to kill all Israel including them, and the decree that Israel could not enter the Holy Land would have become operative, since the Torah says in Numbers 14,29: "In this desert your carcasses will fall, and all of you who have been numbered in accordance with their respective number." G–d separated the count of the Levites in order to head off this catastrophe. This is also why the Torah does not even employ the same wording when referring to the counting of the Levites, but instead of שאן את ראש, we have פקוד את בני לוי in 3,15. So far that Midrash

This matter is also alluded to in Numbers 14,17: דרך כו-כב מיעקב, "A star rose from Jacob." The Zohar divides the word כוכב into 26=כו, and 22=כב, an allusion to the Ineffable four-lettered Name of G–d=26, which can be spelled in twelve different combinations of its letters as we have demonstrated, all of which have their origin in the emanation תפארת, which represents the characteristic of our patriarch Jacob. Afterwards, (since מטתו שלמה, he produced only spiritually loyal offspring), that offspring was given the Torah, i.e. the 22=כב letters that make up the Torah's alphabet. The reason that all this had to be alluded to at this point was that Jacob had set out to pick a bride and found the family that in turn would consist of the founders of the twelve tribes.

When Joseph claimed that the brothers had come to view ערות הארץ, "the land in its nakedness" (42,9), he chose words which reflected the attitude of the spies hundreds of years later when they wanted to appoint a leader to bring them back to Egypt (Numbers 14,4). Yehudah answered Joseph that he was the spokesman of the brothers, and that Levi was second in line to him because he wore (or would wear) the "crown" of the Priesthood. He added: "Your servants have never been spies," pointing out that Caleb of the tribe of Yehudah who had been sent out as a spy, had played a faultless role in that episode. Since Moses had not seen fit to send a member of the tribe of Levi on that mission, Levi too could not be faulted for lack of love for the land of Canaan. When Yehudah stated "your servants, [meaning myself as the wearer of the "crown" of Royalty and Levi as the wearer of the "crown" of Priesthood Ed.] have not been spies" (in the past tense), he alluded to the fact that at a later date when Joshua would send out spies a member of the tribe of Levi would be included, namely Pinchas.